What that means, comonly, is "a few grand, plus 10 years of options which, in the unlikely event that they were actually exercised, would garner advances totalling in the region of about half a mill, plus another 50k on marketing, and a six figure sum on 'fruit and flowers' if you know what I mean"

Record companies regularly trot out these ridiculous figures because they think that journalists are stupid enough to believe them and, by and large, they are.